Recovering a lost partition - help needed

K

Kai Bergmann

I've lost access to a FAT32 partition.

Following situation:

Samsung SpinPoint SP1614N (160 GB)
Partitioned:
* primary with about 15 GB (C:)
* an extended with one logical drive -> rest of the disc space

OS: Win98SE

I do have access to the primary partition (C:) but have lost my
extended one.

Things I've tried so far:

* PartitionMagic:
finds the extended but marks the logical partition as "Unallocated".
The operation "undelete" doesn't fix the problem.

* DOS Active Partition Recovery 2.1:
basically the same as for PartitionMagic, marks "Unallocated" but
can't help.

* Norton Disk Doctor:
no help either. Scans the disc but can't restore anything.

* findpart:
I've read some threads where this tool was recommended so I tried it.
"findpart all fp.txt" lead to the result that is inserted below.


Is there a way to restore the partition or the lost data?
Can somebody tell me how to interpret the result of findpart?

Any help would be appreciated :)

Thanks
Kai



Findpart, version 4.43 - for Windows 95/98/ME/NT/2000/XP.
Copyright Svend Olaf Mikkelsen, 1999-2004.

OS: Windows 4.10.2222 All

Disk: 1 Cylinders: 19457 Heads: 255 Sectors: 63 MB: 152625

--PCyl N ID -----Rel -----Num ---MB --Start CHS- ---End CHS-- BS CHS
0 - 0C 63 31471272 15366 0 1 1 1958 254 63 B OK
Fdisk F6 sector 1981 0 1
Fdisk F6 sector 1981 1 1
Fdisk F6 sector 1982 0 1
Fdisk F6 sector 1983 0 1
Fdisk F6 sector 1983 1 1
Fdisk F6 sector 18429 0 1
Fdisk F6 sector 18429 1 1

------FAT CHS -Size Cl --Root -Good -Rep. Maybe --Bad YY-MM-DD DataMB
0 1 33 15360 8 2 15360 0 0 0 04-06-03 7354

Partitions according to partition tables on first harddisk:

--PCyl N ID -----Rel -----Num ---MB --Start CHS- ---End CHS-- BS CHS
0 1*0C 63 31471272 15366 0 1 1 1958 254 63 OK OK
0 2 0F 31471335281105370137258 1959* 0 1 19456*254 63 OK

No signature CHS: 1959 0 1
 
S

Svend Olaf Mikkelsen

I've lost access to a FAT32 partition.

Following situation:

Samsung SpinPoint SP1614N (160 GB)
Partitioned:
* primary with about 15 GB (C:)
* an extended with one logical drive -> rest of the disc space

OS: Win98SE

I do have access to the primary partition (C:) but have lost my
extended one.

Things I've tried so far:

* PartitionMagic:
finds the extended but marks the logical partition as "Unallocated".
The operation "undelete" doesn't fix the problem.

* DOS Active Partition Recovery 2.1:
basically the same as for PartitionMagic, marks "Unallocated" but
can't help.

* Norton Disk Doctor:
no help either. Scans the disc but can't restore anything.

* findpart:
I've read some threads where this tool was recommended so I tried it.
"findpart all fp.txt" lead to the result that is inserted below.


Is there a way to restore the partition or the lost data?
Can somebody tell me how to interpret the result of findpart?

Any help would be appreciated :)

Thanks
Kai



Findpart, version 4.43 - for Windows 95/98/ME/NT/2000/XP.
Copyright Svend Olaf Mikkelsen, 1999-2004.

OS: Windows 4.10.2222 All

Disk: 1 Cylinders: 19457 Heads: 255 Sectors: 63 MB: 152625

--PCyl N ID -----Rel -----Num ---MB --Start CHS- ---End CHS-- BS CHS
0 - 0C 63 31471272 15366 0 1 1 1958 254 63 B OK
Fdisk F6 sector 1981 0 1
Fdisk F6 sector 1981 1 1
Fdisk F6 sector 1982 0 1
Fdisk F6 sector 1983 0 1
Fdisk F6 sector 1983 1 1
Fdisk F6 sector 18429 0 1
Fdisk F6 sector 18429 1 1

------FAT CHS -Size Cl --Root -Good -Rep. Maybe --Bad YY-MM-DD DataMB
0 1 33 15360 8 2 15360 0 0 0 04-06-03 7354

Partitions according to partition tables on first harddisk:

--PCyl N ID -----Rel -----Num ---MB --Start CHS- ---End CHS-- BS CHS
0 1*0C 63 31471272 15366 0 1 1 1958 254 63 OK OK
0 2 0F 31471335281105370137258 1959* 0 1 19456*254 63 OK

No signature CHS: 1959 0 1
Click to expand...

The default search did not locate traces from the lost FAT32
partition. I suggest you initially do:

findpart finddir 1 1958 3000 fp-a.txt

and

findpart gb32 1 fp-b.txt

and mail me the files fp-a.txt and fp-b.bat, since the fp-a.txt file
may be large.


Note that there can be a risk that lost data are in the area of the
primary partition due to 32 GB or 128 GB problems. Ideally the disk
should be examined from pure DOS, and nothing written to the primary
partition. If lost data are in the primary partition, or data in the
primary partition were damaged, it however may be difficult to recover
the infected files, so the choice could be made to just examine from
Windows 98.
 
J

John Turco

Kai said:
I've lost access to a FAT32 partition.

Following situation:

Samsung SpinPoint SP1614N (160 GB)
Partitioned:
* primary with about 15 GB (C:)
* an extended with one logical drive -> rest of the disc space

OS: Win98SE

I do have access to the primary partition (C:) but have lost my
extended one.
Click to expand...

<cut remainder of message, for brevity>

Hello, Kai:

Windows 98SE is limited to a maximum partition size of 127GB, and
your extended one (145GB) is well above that. Beginning with Windows
Millennium (which I currently run on my own PC, containing two
SP1614N's), there's much better support for larger hard disks.

I think that's your problem, now, but don't know whether there's a
real solution to it (i.e., data recovery).

Sorry, I can't be of more help.


Cordially,
John Turco <[email protected]>
 
S

Svend Olaf Mikkelsen

I've lost access to a FAT32 partition.

Following situation:

Samsung SpinPoint SP1614N (160 GB)
Partitioned:
* primary with about 15 GB (C:)
* an extended with one logical drive -> rest of the disc space

OS: Win98SE

I do have access to the primary partition (C:) but have lost my
extended one.

Things I've tried so far:
Click to expand...

Reply no. 2.

From mail I have:
Finddir, version FP 4.43.
Copyright Svend Olaf Mikkelsen, 2004.
Click to expand...
OS: Windows 4.10.2222

Disk: 1 Cylinders: 19457 Heads: 255 Sectors: 63 MB: 152625

Start cylinder: 1958 End cylinder: 3000

--------- CHS ----- LBA -- Cluster (2) ----- LBA -KB YYMMDD
1979 93 49 31798542 3539 031224
1979 101 57 31799054 1965 70 40 31572174 32 031224
1979 105 61 31799310 1965 70 40 31572174 32 031224
Click to expand...
3000 0 1 48195000 searched

------FAT CHS ------LBA Confidence Distance Type Sig
2003 92 53 32184043 17 32 NB
Click to expand...

Showing that the FAT expected to be present between CHS 1959/0/1 and
1965/70/40 is lost.

It is a FAT32 without FAT recovery problem, meaning that it must be
attempted to copy files to another disk using recovery programs.


I have been working on detecting the cause of this, and using a yet
internal version of the GB32 test program, I have:
GB32, version 1.2 Copyright Svend Olaf Mikkelsen, 2001-2004.

OS: DOS 7.10 WINDOWS 4.10

Disk: 1 Cylinders: 19457 Heads: 255 Sectors: 63 MB: 152625

Comparing sector 0 to 999 with an area later on the disk:

Distance 4096*255*63: 0 matches.
Distance 65536*16*63: 0 matches.
Distance 65536*15*63: 0 matches.

No known 32 GB problems were observed.

The known 128 GB problem may be present.

Method 2:

The known 128 GB problem was not found.
Click to expand...

In the meantime I have discovered another Windows 98 128 GB problem,
and I am trying to figure out the exact nature of the problem. When
ready, I will update the GB32 program to detect the Windows 98 128 GB
problems I know of.
 
J

Joep

In the meantime I have discovered another Windows 98 128 GB problem,
and I am trying to figure out the exact nature of the problem. When
ready, I will update the GB32 program to detect the Windows 98 128 GB
problems I know of.
Click to expand...

It appears the Intel Application accelerator can be used to make different
(Windows) OS'es capable of dealing with larger disks (>128 Gb), however make
sure to use the latest version.

http://support.intel.com/support/chipsets/iaa/sb/CS-009319.htm
 
K

Kai Bergmann

Showing that the FAT expected to be present between CHS 1959/0/1 and
1965/70/40 is lost.

It is a FAT32 without FAT recovery problem, meaning that it must be
attempted to copy files to another disk using recovery programs.
Click to expand...



Thanks again for your help.

I've tried to recover the contents of the partition using a tool
called "getDataBack" and it was possible to bring back much of the
data.

There seems to be problems with fragmented files. Can you recommend a
tool that I can use to bring the other data back too?


I have been working on detecting the cause of this, and using a yet
internal version of the GB32 test program, I have:


In the meantime I have discovered another Windows 98 128 GB problem,
and I am trying to figure out the exact nature of the problem. When
ready, I will update the GB32 program to detect the Windows 98 128 GB
problems I know of.
Click to expand...


I thought that if i had the problem I would be able to see only 128
gigs. To that moment when my partition "dissapeared" everything was
working fine.


Kai
 
W

W-DoVe

I had a bigger problem and when I used so many versions of GetDataBack
I found that the latest releas 2.31 dated 25-6-2004 is the only
version that can recover files over 120MB from a formatted drive ..
all the other versions could not retrive more than 100MB as a single
file. but could not find a working serial for it.
you may need to wait for a week from today and some one will post the
new serial here.
 
J

Joep

W-DoVe said:
I had a bigger problem and when I used so many versions of GetDataBack
I found that the latest releas 2.31 dated 25-6-2004 is the only
version that can recover files over 120MB from a formatted drive ..
all the other versions could not retrive more than 100MB as a single
file. but could not find a working serial for it.
you may need to wait for a week from today and some one will post the
new serial here.
Click to expand...

This is NOT a group where we're in the habit of posting serials for
commercial software. So please piss off (pardon the langauge) and keep your
illegal serials to yourself!
 

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